IT WAS A LONG TIME AGO, the late-1970s, possibly, or the very early 1980s. My father and I were watching one of the many current affairs shows then broadcast by the state-owned television network. The guest was a very young Alan Gibbs – at least that’s the way I remember it. If it wasn’t him, then it was someone who looked and sounded very much like him.
It was an odd interview. Not in terms of the production itself, but because in those days people espousing the views of businessmen like Alan Gibbs were very few and far between. In New Zealand, at least, the post-war Keynesian settlement still reigned supreme. Lassiez-faire capitalism was something students read about in economic history textbooks. In the 1970s, most responsible intellectuals dismissed unregulated capitalism as a ruthless and highly exploitative form of economic management, long since discarded by civilised nations.
That’s what made the interview so memorable. The young businessman (Gibbs?) withstood the interviewer’s rather condescending line of questioning without flinching. Every aspect of the post-war settlement: the welfare state; public ownership; compulsory unionism; import-licencing; guaranteed prices; came under his withering critique. My father and I looked at each other in alarm. We’d never heard anything like it. At the conclusion of the interview, my father turned to me and said: “Men like that are dangerous, son. If they ever gain a serious following in this country they will cause tremendous harm.”
It was New Zealand’s first encounter with what we today call “neoliberalism”. Within five years of that interview, however, Keynesianism was on the defensive. Businessmen like Gibbs and his fellow asset strippers were being lionised in the business press. Defenders of the status quo, like Rob Muldoon, were being pilloried. The new economic order, guarded by Margaret Thatcher in the UK, and Ronald Reagan in the USA, had made the world safe of dangerous men. Here in New Zealand – just as my father had predicted – they were all getting ready to inflict tremendous harm.
What made me think of this prophetic television encounter from 40 years ago? Unsurprisingly, it was another current-affairs interview.
On Sunday’s Q+A (17/7/16) Corin Dann interviewed Stephen Jennings, the former Treasury official and New Zealand investment banker who took advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union to make himself a billionaire.
Jennings’ firm, Renaissance Capital, made five billion dollars buying and selling the property of the Russian people. The new, laissez-faire economy Jennings and his fellow oligarchs constructed on the ruins of the USSR proved to be more than usually dangerous. Perhaps the most dramatic measure of the tremendous harm it inflicted was that, as the Oligarchs and their kleptocrat political allies imposed capitalism on their nation from above, the life expectancy of the Russians actually fell.
Today, Jennings oversees a continent-wide property development enterprise constructing massive suburbs on the outskirts of African largest cities. As low-wage economies cascade out of Asia and into the last, great, untapped pool of cheap labour on the planet, Jennings will be there to ensure that their new, middle-class overseers have somewhere suitable to live.
Whether Africans prove to be as biddable as Russians remains to be seen. All the signs point to the great wave of globalisation, out of which Jennings extracted his super-profits, as having already broken. As it recedes, the neoliberal doctrine, which for forty years has been used to justify the globalisers’ moral and environmental excesses, is beginning to sound increasingly hollow.
Not, of course, to the members of the NZ Initiative (successor organisation to the NZ Business Roundtable) who were happy to provide an audience for Jennings’ unreconstructed neoliberalism. Nor, indeed, to Act’s David Seymour, in whose “Free Press” newsletter Jennings is lauded like a rock-star. But to those of us who have heard enough neoliberal rhetoric over the past 40 years to last several lifetimes, Jennings performance came across as just one more iteration of a policy prescription that has succeeded only in making the world a less equal, less habitable, and less free place in which to live.
As Dann concluded his interview with Jennings, it occurred to me that I had been witness to both the beginning and the end of an era. Gibbs and Jennings are neoliberal proselytisers of formidable energy and unwavering certainty. That much, at least, remains unchanged. The difference, of course, is that in that first interview the ideas expressed had yet to be tested in a modern context. In Jennings’s case that is obviously no longer true. The world now knows what happens when capitalism is unbound. Its harm is all around us.
My father knew, instinctively, that business leaders like Gibbs and Jennings were dangerous men. Would that he had lived long enough to see the interview in which the self-serving character of their ideology was made obvious to everyone.
Growth is the current myth uttered by most of our prospective politicians from both left and right. Crazy stuff based on further fantasy.
Yeah there is plenty for us all to be rich but after me – Yeah right.
The world isn’t finite we can always find more.
An many swallow it.
You got it wrong Frank. We will work harder to earn the same and shop the less. The extra we should have pocketed becomes “profit” for the capitalists who will also pick further profit from increased prices.
Well said John. There are a lot of we Cassandras out there speaking heresy. The end of growth of oil of biosystems of climate of finance. The trainwreck is unfolding. Our new world may be nicer if it is “leftish” but the current prescriptions from both sides are dead meat.
LOL. Cassandra has had bad rap from many business organisations and other parasites in the festering financial pig trough, but today many of the observable trends are clearly heading to an oblivion for civilisation as we know it.
The difference between Cassandras time and today is that we have at least 44 years of testing the consistency of data along a defined path discovered clearly over 4 decades ago with rigorous testing regularly since, by the top scientific organisations equipped to do so.
As a counter, the business world lies about the future, lies that are still slipping from politicians lips and are widely perpetrated, but mean while the data trends have not changed except to get worse. The data stands solid but is conveniently ignored as business continues to lie and deny.
Beware the ploy of argument over detail hence diverting attention from the bigger picture and wider view.
The ideologies spawned by parasites, later joined by bold neoliberals, follow doctrine blueprints laid down by prophet economists writing scriptures and new commandments for their speculative and deadly religion of organised greed and theft. We all are forced to pay a tithe to their enactment of policies and think tank revisionism of our mythical egalitarian dreams.
The have carved out a global cabal of institutionalised theft and destruction of a future for oncoming generations, and led a rush to destroy our environment for short term gratification of a twisted few.
So to be in Cassandras shadow is a more worthy cloak to hold than the deadly neo-liberal chalice brim full or division, distrust and ruthless ambition of taking wealth away from the many regardless of consequence for us all.
The mealy mouthed politician con men and secret script writers are attack weapons. They exist in most current NZ political parties and as we can see in the past. put there purposefully or recruited along the way.
Whenever you hear “Growth” then the lips uttering such absurdities are deeply branded.
I recall one comment supposedly attributed to Roger Douglas (?) that the neo-liberal “revolution” would demand an entire generation be lost in the ensuing fall-out of the transformation.
I have no way of knowing if Douglas uttered those chilling words.
But we’ve seen not one, but two generations fall under the crushing wheels of the Neo-liberal Juggernaut. Like it’s mirror-image twin, neo-liberalism is a remorseless god that demands sacrifices (ie; human lives) without so much as a second thought.
The old T.I.N.A. (There Is No Altnernative) is long gone. There are plenty of alternatives. It simply depends on what kind of society and environment we really want to enjoy for ourselves, and our children.
The greatest irony of Jenning’s comments is he lamented our “poor productivity”. Aside from the fact that his criticism is of dubious accuracy, he seems to be demanding we work harder, to earn more, to shop longer, 24/7.
I have seen Mr Jenning’s future, and I want no part of it.
All these metrics talking sock puppets use are literally false idols.
I didn’t watch the interview but I can guess what was said that goes something like ” how can we keep this Ponzi scheme going for longer.”
Ops. Pressed the wrong reply button. It should have went up on its own not as a reply to Frank. But it was another good reply by Frank anyway.
😀 Cheers, Sam!
Well said, Frank. I am sure that in the early stages of Rogernomics I heard the man himself on a TV interview assure us that his was the way ahead, as long as we did it right and achieved a ‘high-wage economy’ status. We had to avoid becoming a ‘low-wage economy’ – not a desirable outcome.
Of course, Roger and his friends then did everything possible to make ours a low-wage economy. Can’t have the menial workers spoiling the sacred efforts of the most holy profit-gougers. And – remember – profit was not a dirty word!!
Lies, lies, and lies, and here is Jennings giving us more honeyed lies with the connivance of the MSM.
He did say that there’d be pain before the gain but I don’t think he said it would be a generation.
Of course, all the majority of people have had is pain and it’s getting worse. A few people at the top are getting far, far more. The end result of such shifts in wealth will be the collapse of society.
CHRIS THIS COUNTRY IS NOW BECOMMING A CESS POOL OF DIRTY FINANCE DEALERS AS WE WOULD EXPECT AFTER HAVING OUR OWN DIRTY BANKER WORKING AWAY FOR EIGHT YEARS NOW AS PM.
Jennings was like Paula Rebstock and her husband also on the treasury also so these are evil people all around our public treasury centre and is becoming a little unsettling to say the least now.
Time for a royal enquiry as to check our how the treasury actually function’s today!!!!!!
Yes , another fanatical far right propaganda man. And while the rest skulk and scheme behind closed doors the usual practice is to send out emissaries to the public to spread their gospel . In this case in the form of Jennings.
An unsavory man for an unsavory mission.
The joke is however . we are all well aware on how to spot a neo liberal pirate from a distance these days. There are despite that fact ,…those uneducated souls who are still vulnerable to such false prophets. And that’s what makes him dangerous.
As does the rest of the pirates who support that fanatical ideology.
We all well remember Margret Thatcher standing up and saying ”Socialism is only good when they can spend someones else’s money ”..
And the line was spun to us about ‘the sense of entitlement’ of those under a Social Democratic system . These and other insidious lines belong in the dustbins of jaded and failed 1980’s political and economic theoretical dogmas.
The truth and facts have been born out of the very evidence itself : that the doctrine of the fanatical neo liberal emanating from such bodies as the Mont Pelerin society and its emissary Milton Freidman , like its earlier version Lassez Fairre and its yet earlier origins from the Austrian school of economics was ONLY ever contrived to achieve two goals, – one of a ruling rich elite with a majority in servitude and the second a system of natural eugenics.
If we go back to several economic and political thinkers of the 17th century we find this in various country’s including several English ‘thinkers’… the theory behind it is that those that are poor would naturally find their slow but painful demise through their poverty… thus saving the elite the need to consider the consequences of their actions in setting up such a system …
This was in response to the collapse and constitutionalism of the monarchical systems of Europe at the time – to be replaced with a private ‘ royalty’ … with its barons and lords under another name.
And so we see the callous viciousness of the aspiring ‘ elites’ has been with us for a long time… and it is apt to call these societal wreckers fanatics, indeed .. treasonous … as that is what they actually are.
Their very ability to morph with changing conditions by buying off individuals with wealth and influence is what makes them a perennial threat … thus this is why they are so dangerous to any truly democratic govt or parliamentary system , and Social Democracy is particularly vulnerable if not guarded and protected against from these subversives.
The neo liberal is an inherent globalist. They are pan continental , trans national and they have absolutely no room in their ideology for any concept of the nation state. This is why they seek to break down any resistance in the form of unionization , trade tariffs, inclusive govt, regulations and finally a nations sovereignty in all but it being relegated to a mere a figurehead position.
This is why the neo liberal is a confirmed advocate of treason. The state and its concept is antipathy to them. A strong and well regulated state with protections for its population is an impediment to their goals. It frustrates their plans of influencing political leaders in opening up a society for exploitation. And one of the ways they justify it is to propagate false theory’s of ‘waste’.
‘ Waste’ , they will tell us , is the ‘ waste’ that is used to ensure those in need do not live in extreme hardship. That ‘ waste ‘ they are talking about is the govt funding needed to support a modern and civil society that provides social services to all. And that ‘ waste ‘ they talk about is the taxes provided willingly by the public to support that modern civil society.
However , again we see the sheer avarice and deception of the fanatical neo liberals goals with this propaganda … the real motive behind this is to create conditions whereby a society abolishes the social welfare of its own people to insert in privatization instead. We see this now with the Key led govt ( which is intrinsically neo liberal ) in denying funds for social services and introducing privatization in education , prisons, health and the like.
The callousness of these people is the lies they tell to achieve it : by deliberately under-funding social services and skewing statistics they seek to justify closing down any vestiges of the welfare state. In the process, tens of thousands suffer. But they do not care. At all. Their goals are paramount over any concept of humanitarianism.
This latest diatribe sent out by the NZ Institute to try and bolster up an ideology that had its heyday in the 1980’s should be seen for what it is : an out of step , jaded vestige of a dated economic and political theory that has seen mass impoverishment in this country and created a global financial crash with which the world has yet to recover from.
BREXIT , and other movements akin to it… has caused panic among these aspiring ‘ elites’… the plan and framework is crumbling as people start to resist their subversion’s.
What is truly remarkable is seeing neo liberals like Jennings raising their heads above the parapets right smack in the middle of all this political change… it is almost akin to standing up and expounding the virtues of sterilization of the poor at a pro life meeting…
And that , … is no stretching of the truth either… as it is now as it was several hundred years before, … one of the founding tenets of this sort of ideological thinking.
Discard Jennings for the unpopular and disdainful individual he is, discard him and his discredited ideology’s for the subversive and treasonous doctrine of the organisation that sent him. Give no room to either him or his NZ Institute associates.
They have had their day , they see it , and they are reacting in pain. Pain they were all too ready to inflict on hundreds of thousands, nay millions of people worldwide.
Give them no quarter . None whatsoever.
And what does New Zealand have at the fag end of it all? A feral asset stripping mutant form of neo-liberalism as our government.
I see that Jennings, like a true neoliberal, was advocating the introduction of a capital gains tax, a measure which would only serve the interests of the banking community.
If I remember correctly Alan Gibbs made his fortune by importing radio and TV parts and manufacturing them here in NZ, around the time TV was starting. Very few people had the contacts with government to get such licences, but Gibbs was one of the lucky lobbyists. So he made his fortune under the old system of patronisation and once he’d made the money under that system completely rubbished it! The hypocrite.
Reminds me of another of Gibbs’ ilk, the one-time chair of Telecom, Peter Shirtcliffe. When his CEO Rod Deane resigned Shirtcliffe said he had to trawl the international market to find someone to succeed Deane as CEO. And of course it would mean paying top dollars – that’s how the new system worked (yeah right).His international trawling never worked despite offering exorbitant salary – plus contracts. And who did he end up appointing at a much less what had been the salary overseas? NZ-born Theresa Gattung. What a farce Shirtcliffe played out on that occasion.
And there’ve been so many others… rip-off merchants all. Michael Faye and his mate RichWhite (why did they hightail it overseas when the heat came on?) and so many others.
I hope you’re right Chris and we’re coming to them end of the era of such abominable people.
Gentlemen.
You expression of frustration is so brilliantly constrained.
But I fear it is much worse than that.
The distraction and division these speak-easy prostitutes elicite profanely and grossly confuses the ill educated in the absence of union and socialist principles being entrenched, and shared through bitter experience. The common good has no place for these bastard children of greed.
Their distraction clouds our attention from a more urgent but connected set of surmounting consequences of gross consumption , waste and neglect of restoring our damaged world.
To address the damage apparent is the antithesis of neo-liberal dogma.
They can’t stand it just as we can’t afford to stand their greed , vandalism and psychopathy.
“On Sunday’s Q+A (17/7/16) Corin Dann interviewed Stephen Jennings, the former Treasury official and New Zealand investment banker who took advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union to make himself a billionaire.”
Corin Dann does at times sound and appear a bit like a keen learning student, asking questions like he wants to be “taught” something, he does this when talking to John Key and people like Jennings. He also jumps from topic to topic very quickly, and sometimes seems to follow a slightly incoherent interview style.
He could do with a bit more media training, I wonder whether he just learned it through doing over the years.
Anyway, my main worry about Q+A is, while I do at least occasionally watch it, that it seems to be prepared to be handed over as a show run by Jessica Mutch. I have observed her over the years, and she is one that I would put into the National Party friendly camp of journos. Maybe I am wrong, but that has been my perception for quite some time.
She is not moderating the show more often, it seems they want her to be the main moderator in Q+A, which disturbs me.
I am afraid she is not known for handling complex matters, although she can be a drilling interviewer. She is also somewhat pro business, I note, and with her at the helm, the neo-liberals will have a heyday at TVNZ.
I agree with Chris, men like Stephen Jennings, they are dangerous men, wolves in sheep skin!
NZ needs an anti-corruption commission to sift through every privatisation ever made for public interest. Any that fail the test must be reverted and the guilty punished severely. Unless we as a nation suddenly approve of organised crime. Somehow I don’t think we do.
Yes Stuart,
Australia has a Corruption Commission why not us now?
That way the whole front bench of NatZ would be jailed here!!!!
I am going to take a very informed guess that people like Stephen Jennings see the world through a very warped lens.
To him all that matters is making his next billion, there is just never such a thing to an individual like this as too much money, there can never ever be enough. And yet he makes it by exploiting entire populations in the process, by relieving them of any chance of them as individuals making much of a living above subsistence. Its how the system has to work but its a system that is eventually doomed to failure.
But isn’t ironic that he is noticing that his self centered winner takes all lifestyle is causing backlashes the world around. Blame it on some religion or some cult or some boogie man all you like the violence that is out pouring is more of a reflection on the likes of Jennings taking everything and leaving society with nothing. Its convenient to label such groups with a name and a black flag but it is terrifying to think this is simply the byproduct of naked capitalism and nothing more!
Is this why Key has wanted to make NZ a bolthole for the billionaire scum of the world? Key is a subscriber and immensely wealthy man himself far from his modest National Party myth of $50 million and made his vast fortune very quickly. Somehow some way Key will be making on ensuring NZ is a refuge when these billionaires finally turn their own back yards into violent cesspools and he knows it.
That someone as greedy and self absorbed as Jennings even gets air time says so much that is wrong with modern society.
We knew what was going to happen.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This is written in time with blood.
In his book “Keys of This Blood”, Martin states that the world is now certain to move into … Catholicism, Capitalism, and Communism.
With Communism gone & Capitalism on its last rites is Catholicism the next step? Given the popes media coverage who knows what could happen. My thoughts would be jumping from the frying pan to the fire would be an apt description of the troubles that would bring.
https://off-guardian.org/2016/07/13/neoliberalism-is-a-species-of-fascism/
https://off-guardian.org/2016/07/13/neoliberalism-is-a-species-of-fascism/
a belgium newspaper article.
The end of the present [neoliberal] system is now very near, and the big crash will probably come around 2020:
http://www.euanmearns.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/toatlliquidsscenario.png
(full article at https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2016/07/the-peak-oil-paradox-revisited/ )
So long as these neos get to breathmore than their fair share of the country’s air we will suffer another round of their covert selfishness
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